"The bassist Torsten Muller was for several years a close collaborator of the trombonist Gunther Christmann, one of the unavoidable pioneers of free improvisation in Europe. He is actually a bassman from the improvised scene at the same ...

"The bassist Torsten Muller was for several years a close collaborator of the trombonist Gunther Christmann, one of the unavoidable pioneers of free improvisation in Europe. He is actually a bassman from the improvised scene at the same pull as a Peter Kowald or a Phillips Bar. It was also heard in King Ubu Orkestru, an exceptional ensemble that united radical improvisers in the 80s and 90s: Wolfgang Fuchs, Peter Van Bergen, Erhard Hirt, Christmann, Wachsmann, Lytton, Malfatti, Charig, Mazzon . Having been established in the USA for years, the amateurs do not know it. They will be able to catch up by listening to this beautiful duet with the remarkable Swedish pianist Lisa Ullen. Perfect touch and perfect dynamic, sense of the best sound at the best moment when it intervenes in the strings, taste of the purity, this defector of classical music is really a pianist to discover. In this concert at the internationally acclaimed International Jazz Festival in Vancouver, the pianist and double bassist engage in a high-flying exchange while avoiding an excess of technical virtuosity. Muller prefers to make us hear rare nuances of the work of the bow in a sound wooded, human, expressive, almost vocal. The music is airy, spacious, focused on the quality of the stamps of each instrument. Dialogue is distended or tightened, and the individual choice of possibilities open to everyone during the moment of improvisation reveals their spontaneity, their sense of invention and their musical intelligence (talent, experience , Intuition, flair). The excellent cover notes written by double bassist Damon Smith are interesting. And we can feed on this reflection to apprehend this beautiful album, surely one of the best of its kind. One of the deep interests of Into The Staring Town is that the two musicians multiply the ideas of the game, transform them permanently, avoiding the obvious too easy to exploit too much what has just been acquired, but preferring to change the register , Phrasing, sounds, scansion, dynamics, speed ... With them, the options seem endless and are renewed. The short moments of waiting are metamorphosed into precipitation and their modes of play are superimposed in infinite variations. A real freshness of inspiration. There is a form of courage, of exigency, without this austere search. One bathes in a contemporary lithism assumed and magnificent with an acute lucidity. Time passes quickly (forty-nine minutes that one can not measure) and one does not waste it while this music is profoundly generous in its figures, its gestures, its echoes. What more could I say? Here is an exceptional duo that exploits a musical, instrumental and human potential in a way as sensitive as magisterial. A real treasure."-Jean-Michel van Schouwburg, Orynx